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Litany is a sci-fi fantasy universe set in an unimaginably distant future. The crusts of Mother Earth has been mutilated and strung apart due to an unknown apocalyptic event long faded from history, where a select few of the countless billions of humanity set fourth on giant "arks" to a new world: Sagittarius. Imperial legend foretells that the arks' landings were a catastrophe, for only one of the five arks managed to find their way on the planet, with the other four drifting away from all contact, finding themselves caught in the gravitational pull of large stars, or perhaps even finding new worlds. Since the ark's landing on Sagittarius, the surviving human's understanding of technology had regressed to that of a feudal level. Thousands of tribes splintered from the once unified colony, creating kingdoms all over this frightening new planet. In time, tribes became kingdoms, kingdoms became empires, as technology slowly regained it's long climb of advancement to where it is today. Several thousand years have passed, and the Sagittarian humans have finally bound together as a single entity, seeing the next phase of their development skyward as they began to colonise the stars, but never in their deepest of dreams did they expect to be met with violence out in the cold of space, by other entire star-spanning empires controlled by none-other than their millennia-forgotten brothers of the four lost arks Now the three major galactic superpowers fight for universal conquest, led by their array of emperors and warlords, having found themselves in a cycle, fighting endlessly for centuries; yet little has changed. Will these off-cast colonies of humans die out in the fires of its own ignorance, or will it at last realise its true destiny? This is Litany, a world of conscription; of suffering and unimaginable hardship. To the newborn eye, the world may seem beautiful, but underneath this thin shell of ignorance lies a a very cold and frightening world. Aims From political and/or emotional concepts large or small to stories just for the sake of being damn good reads. Night in Flames Arc The Night in Flames Arc, alonside its sister Arcs Black Crown and Starless Halcyon revolve around the affairs of the anarchist driven House Vespertilo and some of its more prominent members, alongside the tale of a young man dabbling with things he doesn't quite understand. Night in Flames specifically inspects the lives of Dayana Canadia, a young woman who knows full well that Death may come to embrace her at any point in time; Rodrigo Vespertilo, son of Alphonse Vespertilo and a man who's past has not yet stopped tormenting him. Black Crown Arc A sequel to Night in Flames, Black Crown revolves around Alphonse Vespertilo's true goals and intentions for why he seeks the death of Emperor Andromeda and the collapse of the Nova Anglia Empire. Starless Halcyon Arc Fractured Oblivion Arc Iron Sea Arc Whilst drawing heavily from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, touching upon concepts such as thoughtcrime, ownlife and mob mentality, total government surveillance, total manipulation of truth and media, and doublethink, this arc of the Litany story aims to critique the romanticisms behind nationalism, imperialism, scientific racism, arrogance and greed, creationism, and misogyny. It also explores the potential dangers of organised religion, the importance of self-belief, the extreme positives and negatives of establishing friendships, and lastly the dangers of fear upon a person: resulting in paranoia, unwavering desire to control everything, the fear of losing comfort and power, and so fourth. Its liberal use of war themes and atmosphere are also notably inspired by Stephen E. Ambrose's Band of Brothers and its miniseries adaptation produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, of whom also produced its spiritual successor The Pacific. The Iron Sea Arc explores the lives of three protagonists and their experiences within the world they live in: Private Emilia ѵon Alaric, a foreigner who retains her goodwill despite having her world crumble around her; Private Dominick von Orѵisch, another foreigner who succumbs; and Lieutenant Jasen Dantus Callisto, a noble who's love for his empire dwindle to the point of its very damaging and chaotic demise. Aspects of the Litany Universe :::''Please note: Most of the facts detailed in these sections are for background lore only, and will not see much discussion in-story.'' Geography MapKingdoms.png|The known galaxy (within the perspective of Nova Anglia), showing all autonomous kingdoms. The Autonomy of Voonis, Empyria, and Wilusha & Nakon is debatable. MapKingdomsNewVersion2.jpg|Concept Map of the Litany Universe if it were compressed onto a single planet. Science Ancient Technology Ancient technology is the lone fabric within the meagre hands of humanity that links the stars together. By some violation of chance the broken remnants of civilisation have retrieved and replicated enough relics of past eras to make space travel possible. Whilst most ancient technology exists as mysterious, largely featureless white apparatus often only the size of a large room - easily operated and self-maintaining - there exist many prototypes and semi-stable new variants grafted over from years of crude scientific study, devices of which are often responsible for the farthest reaches of new human science. Yet at the same time, these devices are equally accountable for countless billions of human deaths and the monetary costs of collateral damage simply due to a universally poor understanding of science. Existing technology devised from analysing or replicating ancient starships include: *Stable starship construction methods. Due to the availability of fairly rudimentary technology in comparison to the machinations of the ancients, entire planets are often involved in the construction of starships to minimise production time. *First-tier and Second-tier (instant) Wormhole technology, also referred to as "Waygate technology". Whilst generally located within deep space away from singular planets to minimise cost, minimise risk and to increase galactic accessibility, certain influential capital worlds have smaller wormholes installed upon the surface of the planet. This practice is often frowned upon or viewed as overly pretentious due to a waygate's often highly unstable nature. *Medium and Heavy class combat laser technology. Requires large amounts of energy, and as such are only used within starships or large planetary defence systems. *Wormhole creation devices. Modern working models have proven to be heavily prone to malfunction. *Fusion power. **They are almost entirely misunderstood in their operation. Used exclusively in high-class starships for high-energy operations **The technology to replicate fusion cells does not exist, with all fusion cells in current existence being salvaged from ancient starships and their various emergency cargo bays. Because of this, it is general practice to retrieve fusion cells from destroyed starships. This rarity has also given rise to a highly competitive business of stealing generators from foreign starships, both in wartime and peacetime. **This technology is one of the few fully recovered remnants of ancient technology. It appears to be self maintaining, as not one fusion cell has required repair in recorded history. Requiring hydrogen for the reaction, the fusion generators can be fuelled using either pure hydrogen gas, or with water, where the machine will then filter it out using electrolysis. To Anglian science, the science behind its operation and self-maintenance is a mystery, and the very concept of the machine's often frightening "self-conscious" nature is kept secret to the grand majority of the Anglian population. *Nuclear power. **Like fusion power, they are largely misunderstood in their operation. Replication takes vast amounts of money, time, and often result in catastrophic failure, with many thousands of planets zoning off entire regions due to radioactive meltdowns. **Some fully-self sufficient and self-maintaining models do exist, much like existing fusion cells, however they are rare. It is generally believed that these were studied by curious scientists and rudimentarily replicated through tedious a process of trial and error. **Depending on the quality of the make, or lack of such, nuclear reactors can often have difficulty reaching critical mass. *Cryogenic stasis technology, which allows ship occupants to hibernate during long space voyages whilst travelling between wormholes. Modern cryogenic stasis beds can have difficulty in retaining temperature, and as such require constant maintenance. Any original models of this ancient technology appear to have been lost. *Centrifugal capacitors installed within ships (be it internally built in or part of the framework of the entire ship, with the latter being favoured to minimise friction) used to simulate artificial gravity. Ships must have a rotation speed of at least 2rpm to nullify adverse effects upon occupants. These effects include: dizziness, nausea, weight sensation changes depending on direction walked/run in, as well as the curved directions of descent that occur of any object dropped within the centrifuge (Coriolis effect). Due to this demanding considerable energy and a minimum starship size, very small starships and personal shuttles do not have such technology. In such ships, occupants are required to strap themselves onto their seats or to wear floor-connected harnesses to avoid floating. *Gamma detection technology. Used by starships for navigation. *Long-distance telescopes and photography equipment. Whilst very primitive (only capable of taking low-grade black and white photos), the technology is used to record images of planets, enemy starships and other spatial anomalies. New Technology *Aside from ancient technology, all technology, fashion and artistic taste for the galaxy is similar to that of the early to the late-1940's world. This does include jet engines (of which are still being developed), simple room-sized computers for starships and administration buildings, radar, ballistic missiles, voice recognition machines, synthetic rubber, radio telescopes, kidney dialysis machines, commercial television sets (whilst not available in every home, they do exist in public for distributing propaganda, and in the homes of the wealthy) and so fourth. Exclusions A: nuclear missiles and microwave ovens don't exist. Exclusions B: SSTV, optical telescopes (including simple long-range photography), simple Sputnik-like satellites, nuclear power, fusion power, power steering for high-class wheeled vehicles do exist. Whilst radio exists, long distant messages are usually sent on paper letters via freighting ships, or in exceptional cases for the upper echelons of human society, directly through miniature wormhole portholes within specially designed canisters. Biodiesel exists, contributing significantly to a boom in space colonisation for all three Empires due to many habitable planets having no natural sources of fossil fuels available for harvest and use in factories and vehicles. Hydroponics also exist in primitive forms, used primarily on starships and on worlds that have no soil organic matter (SOM), an element crucial to healthy plant growth. Whilst SOM can be imported in from far-off lush jungled or forested worlds, it is a rare resource, and as such is very high in price. *Modern (aka "modern/present" = through the eyes of people within the Litany universe) science doesn't recognise atoms. The concept of anything smaller than a germ or pollen particle is inconceivable, and furthermore, the only science that exists is regulated by the demands of government. Only the Ecclesiarchal Dominion of Empyrion recognises Darwinian-type evolution as science, but even then it's still heavily tied to their religion. However, there are a sparse few outcast intellectuals out there that have the funds and self-devised technology to know of and study the existence of true science. There is not a government within known space that will accept their existence. ShipsSizings.png|Chart showing various ancient starships * Advanced (aka "arcane/futurist" = through the eyes of people within the Litany universe) science has been embraced by small seperatist movements and ancient galactic consortiums. This has included research into splitting the atom and adjusting the atomic structure of certain substances. Such documentation and experimentation is deemed heretical by most major governmental bodies, most prominently the Nova Anglian Empire. While the Kingdom of Saeletia is rumored to have developed technology that is deemed heretical, since their integration into the Kingdom of Anglia, they have seemingly ceased in their studies of the arcane aspects of the universe. Culture *The Nova Anglian Empire has become greatly similar to the Roman and British empires, being greatly inspired by the grace and romanticism of the ancient western world as observed from the historical fantasy sagas passed down through time, riddled with fact and prophecies perceived within equal status. Similar evolutions have occurred for the three kingdoms of Empyrion and the several dozen states of the Holy Empire of Roskitaya, however they have not been as drastically influential, and as such their societies have had room to develop their own unique cultures and languages. *Whilst communication, trade, cultural influence, language influence, and above all war happens between the three powers of Anglia, Empyrion and Roskitaya, the Great Northern Union remains is a constant and enigmatic mystery. Within a blunt sense, it often froms part of general knowledge that "Nobody knows what goes on in the North, as one does not simply fly a starship into the North without coming back alive." It seems that the majority of the eastern population lives in fear of the North, and hope to their various gods that the North continues their regular habits of keeping isolated and to themselves. *Intelligent aliens have not shown any sign of existence. The mere concept of life unlike earth plant or earth animal is shunned by the vast majority of humanity, where as anything equal to or above man in intelligence is inconceivable. Any possible sentinet alien life that may have existed upon colonised worlds over the millennia has most likely been overrun and extinguished by the introduction of Earth animals and plants (or greater even, viruses) onto these planets for livestock and game. Ironically, organic matter within soil on habitable worlds is an extremely valuable and prized resource, allowing crops to be grown straight from the ground. *Populations for any inhabited planets are at most 2-3 billion people. Population levels are so low due to four things: farming technology being strewn between producing sufficient food and sufficient biodiesel; farming techniques being fairly primitive, with simple diesel engines, nitrogen fertiliser and headers in use much like the food production industries of post-WWII Earth; transportation technology not being efficient enough to support a large population; and lastly life expectancies due to war, and the availability of food and lack of adequate healthcare. *Worlds with natural supplies of fossil fuels are, whilst rare, tend to be the richest and most populated of worlds. History and Philosophy *Due to the utter elimination of 21st century research and sourcing techniques, as well as the heavy weight of religious dogma over millennia, reliable historical recounts of what truly happened before 4500 a.i. do not exist. The only fragmented imprints of an existence before the present reside within pseudo-historical legend and religious tales, as well as ignorable things such as artefacts of the past that exist in modern language, art and culture, or the unchanging nature (and arrogant, ignorant stupidity) of human behaviour itself. *Existentialism is usually popular to most who is truly capable of free will and thought. These comprise the absolute minority of the populace, for there are many countless billions more who would claim to be so, all the while deep down knowing nothing more than fabricated dogma and superstition. Many philosophers are well aware that often it is simply better to let yourself be brainwashed and to fall into a state of dependance and love for your government rather than sticking to yourself and your own morals, as after all: ignorance is bliss.